Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Please
make a contribution to this fundraiser that Bloomfield Garfield
Corporation is hosting in order to raise legal funds to ensure that we
really DO have a park in our community once the former Penn Plaza site
is redeveloped!

This legal fund will allow groups to go to court and ensure, when the new retail-office complex at former Penn Plaza
Apartments opens, there is an Enright Park sitting next to it, with
unfettered access for the public. http://ioby.org/Enright

the project

The battle to preserve Enright Park in East Liberty continues!
This fall, the fight will shift to Orphan’s Court, a division of
Common Pleas Court, as a judge hears the City’s petition to authorize
the exchange of land with Pennley Park South, Inc., that will give them
the final piece they need to construct their large office-retail
development in East Liberty. But at what cost to the public?

Nowhere in the City’s petition will there be a guarantee that a new,
reconfigured park will emerge as the first phase of the commercial
development comes out of the ground. Nor will it ensure that when the
park is finished, the public will enjoy unfettered access to it. And
we're still waiting to see when and how a community process is put in
place to oversee the use of tax dollars generated by the new development
in funding affordable housing nearby. It’s a complex set of terms and
conditions the judge will be asked to review, and we, as community
groups, believe we need to be in the room as those deliberations take
place.

To be heard in that courtroom means hiring attorneys to represent the interests of the larger public, and that takes money.

The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC), together with Enright Park
Neighborhood Association, are creating a legal fund for just that
purpose, and we need your support.

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the BGC so
that the public is not left holding the short straw when all of the dust
has settled.

For more background on what’s at stake with this fight, please visit the website, enrightpark.org.

Thank you in advance for your donation to this important cause!

the steps

To
be heard in that courtroom means hiring attorneys to represent the
interests of the larger public, and that takes money. Once the Money is
in hand it will go directly to the attorneys who are briefed and ready
for the case.

why we're doing it

We
are doing this because Parks are important. Nowhere in the City’s
petition will there be a guarantee that a new, reconfigured park will
emerge as the first phase of the commercial development comes out of the
ground. Nor will it ensure that when the park is finished, the public
will enjoy unfettered access to it. It’s a complex set of terms and
conditions the judge will be asked to review, and we, as community
groups, believe we need to be in the room as those deliberations take
place.

The Bloomfield
Garfield Corporation, Enright Park Neighborhood Association, and Friendship
Community Group wish to reiterate their longstanding opposition to the
privatization of the planned reconstruction of Eva Street, of which this
proposed street vacation will be a part. We therefore formally object to
Council Bill #2019-1910.

As the attached May
12 letter to Mayor Peduto indicates, our opposition to the privatization of Eva
Street centers upon the need to provide unimpeded public access to the
reconfigured Enright Park, which the proposed Eva Street will front for most of
its length. As we stated in our May 12 letter:

Regardless
of easement agreements or other legal covenants for the new street (which we
note were not contained in the final land development plan), management and
control of Eva Street by a private entity creates a foreseeable risk that
park-goers and others will be subject to arbitrary rules pertaining to their
use of the street. Further, if such rules are enforced by a private security
force, there will be many opportunities for careless or deliberate abuse of
such authority.

Despite our repeated
requests for the text of the proposed easements which will govern public use of
the privatized Eva Street, they have not been shared with us to date. We regret
that the planning process for this street privatization has been opaque and
closed to participation by community stakeholders. We wish to strongly
reiterate, however, that no easements or other legal covenants can substitute
for the rights of city residents and others to freely use a street policed and
maintained by the City of Pittsburgh.

We note that the new
Eva Street will be built using public subsidies through the East Liberty
Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID). As our May 12 letter
indicates, we are unpersuaded by the reasons that the developers of Pennley
Park South have used to justify privatization of Eva Street: maintenance of
underground stormwater infrastructure and periodic use of the street for
special events are both activities which are accommodated elsewhere in
Pittsburgh on and under public streets. We see no reason to make an exception
here.

The risks of
arbitrary private management and policing of this important new piece of city
infrastructure will extend far into the future. We urge that City Council
reject this proposed partial street vacation and support construction of the
new Eva Street as a public right of way.

About Enright Park

Enright Park Neighborhood Association is comprised of homeowners, renters, public housing residents, and landlords who live in close proximity to Enright Parklet in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood.

In recent years, we have seen a dramatic transformation of our community, which has resulted in the on-going displacement of our friends and neighbors. This displacement has disproportionately impacted people of color, seniors living on fixed incomes, low-income working families, and the many ways in which these groups intersect.

The Enright Park Neighborhood Association was established to advance the joint causes of affordable housing, public open space, and an inclusive approach to planning and development that will build and enhance a livable East Liberty for everyone in our community. We intend to win a better East Liberty for everyone, and to help set a new standard self-determination for our communities.

Please join us, and let us know how we can support and promote your voice too. For membership information, please complete the form here.

For more information, including media, please contact us at enright.park@gmail.com.